IN a bid to improve lives through strategic skills development, Siyaloba Training Academy hosted a Youth Intervention in Jeffreys Bay on June 25.

The fun-filled colourful day, themed “Christmas in June”, had a serious purpose: to find solutions for the challenges the youth of the Kouga region face on a daily basis.

The main outcome of the Youth Intervention, hosted in association with the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development, was to ensure that future projects and funding continue to be in line with actual community needs, aspirations and linked to opportunities in the area.

“Since skills development was identified in an earlier Youth and Community Dialogue hosted in St Francis Bay in 2015, a total of 109 learners have received training in the Kouga region through a partnership with Siyaloba Training Academy,” says Kouga representative Bukelwa Yozo.

“The purpose of our second Youth Day was to revive the dialogue and see if there were new challenges we could address, in conjunction with our partners.”

Siyaloba Training Academy Founder and Managing Director Betsy Ings, says, “The communities living in the Kouga region are extremely important to us, particularly vulnerable youth who have to battle substance abuse, unemployment and low literacy and educational levels.”

The purpose of the day was not only to find solutions for these and other barriers to youth development in the region, but also to give the youth who attended the dialogue hope for their future through practical information and inspirational speakers hailing from the local community.

One of the speakers, Willie Oosthuizen from The Co-op, encouraged the youth to vo-lunteer for other businesses and organisations, as this is how he became employed and “living his dream” of investing into other people’s lives.

Another speaker, Debbie Minya from Woodlands Dairy, said even though she had to start at the bottom in her career, she worked hard to get to her current position and encouraged learners to do the same - saying “your attitude determines your altitude”.

The various stakeholders and representatives from business were also given an opportunity to share the different learnerships, bursaries and entrepreneurial opportunities available through the National Youth Development Agency, Siyaloba Training Academy, The Co-Op and Woodlands Diary.

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